Question
I am writing this for the sake of awareness for those that may be faced with a similar situation. I have been a professional Ebay seller since 1998 and have worked dilligently and very hard to maintain a perfect 100% feedback record with absolutely no neutral or negative strikes against me. Recently a buyer left a neutral comment which instantly voided my perfect record. The buyer that left the neutral feedback has apologized and admitted they wronged me in their statement to a Square Trade mediator. Square trade has informed me of Ebay's recent "policy change" that states feedback comments will not be removed, only marked as withdrawn. I have always maintained a perfect record and now Ebay and Square Trade decides to dictate that I can not have a perfect reputation? Neither Ebay or Square Trade has any interest in my business and therefore should not be allowed to make my business decisions. The party that left the wrong feedback wants to remove it and has stated so. It is my decision to work towards a perfect record and to maintain a reference list of 100% satisfied customers. Ebay now says even though it's my busines, they can tell me what to do and what I should be displaying for millions of customers to view? No, they can't, and they are wrong with their new policy, very wrong. They can not continue posting damaging information when the responsible person has requested they made a mistake and they want it removed. I make the choice to work to maintain my reputation and I also make the choice to correct any damaging publication that is posted, Not Ebay! This ridiculous policy change must be reversed. Ebay does not run my business!
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If you want it removed that badly, take your buyer to court. Perfect feedback is overrated. I've been tempted to leave neutral just so sellers can get off their high.
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The buyer is not at fault. You have missed the entire point of the posting. This is not about the buyer. They have admitted wrong doing. This is about Ebay and Square Trade being able to dictate how my business is run. Neither has the right to leave any deragatory comment on my account when the buyer has specifically stated they wronged me. I thought this was still a free society? Evidently not when a common service provider can make a business choice for me when they have no interest in my business......Respectfully, TedJ
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> Ebay and Square Trade being able to dictate how my business is run.
That's right, you got it exactly right. You agree to the terms of service on eBay and SquareTrade when you sign up for an account. If you disagree with the terms of service, you can either make a suggestion to change it, or you can run your own business instead of allied with eBay. As long as you are an eBay seller, you must abide by eBay policies.
Its unfortunate you no longer 100% positive feedback, but it happens. Oh well.
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You continue to miss the point. Neither Ebay or Square Trade are allies to any of us that sell on the Internet. They are common service providers, nothing more and they have no authority to dictate our business decisions to protect and maintain a good reputation.
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Perhaps you consider Ebay an ally, but to those who value freedom and independence, they are a service provider. Here is Ebay's statement to the world describing what they are when asked. There is nothing in their policy or company description deeming them an ally.
What is eBay?
eBay is the world's online marketplace - a place for buyers and sellers to come together and trade almost anything!
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I have always maintained a perfect record and now Ebay and Square Trade decides to dictate that I can not have a perfect reputation? Neither Ebay or Square Trade has any interest in my business and therefore should not be allowed to make my business decisions.
What is eBay?
eBay is the world's online marketplace - a place for buyers and sellers to come together and trade almost anything!
One of your business decisions, like me, was to use the marketplace supplied by Ebay. Ebay has always had rules and methods/policies for useage, so your business decision included agreeing to those policies. Going back to 1998, there was no square trade, and feedback could not be removed. Later, once feedback became transactional, only malicious feedback (such as leaving neg's on a swathe of auctions 20 seconds after they finished) or those that violated a policy (such as swearing in the feedback) could be removed. "Mistake" feedback remained, and Ebay never offered to remove it. It was always policy that feedback was permanent, and warnings were given as the feedback was being placed.
Along came squaretrade, who offered a for profit mediation service that allowed feedback to be "removed" by agreement and for a price. I was not particularly comfortable with the implications of this service, and certainly many users were unaware of it's existence. Ebay has now changed to feedback rating removal by mutual agreement, but I have seen rating removals which state that the other party did not respond to requests for agreement (in my opinion the rating should NOT be removed under this circumstance). I have also seen feedback files with 4 different feedback rating removals over the few months since Square Trade was ousted, and seriously wonder whether the party "heavied" the other users into agreeing to remove the feedback rating. For this latter reason, I see validity in seeing the feedback that had the rating removed, it gives me a somewhat informed view of the person I am dealing with (even if it is slanted).
To your specific case. Firstly get your customer to make a follow up feedback comment on that specific transaction, saying something to the effect that they made an error with the feedback that they gave, and that they are happy with the transaction. Then go through the process to have the feedback rating removed. This will "maintain a reference list of 100% satisfied customers", and no neutral comment will be reflected on the table or statistics on your feedback page. Whether or not you have the neutral removed, it will NOT affect the 100% feedback rating on your auction pages, as neutral feedbacks are not counted in that statistic at all.
Kind Regards, Kevin
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You've been selling since 1998?
There was a time that ebay implemented a most stupid policy of changing feedbacks, even positive ones, to a neutral, if the person that left the feedback became NARU. How did you avoid "getting" a neutral then? Just lucky I guess.
Do you seriously believe that one neutral is going to hurt your sales? If so, you're wrong. Look at all those sellers with 15, 40, 70, 150, 4000 negs. They keep right on a-selling.
Most bidders do not check a seller's feedback before bidding, I really do believe that. So your 100% feedback was wasted most of the time anyway.
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Way too much store is put into 100% feedback.
I've been selling since 1998 as well. Got my first neg around 1800. Hurt for a couple of days and believe it or not life went on.
Now I sit at 99.6% with 3400 individual feedback and almost 6000 total positives.
Most of my negs came from people who bought not realizing I was in Canada and were ticked at how long their package took. Or they ordered a customized item and again were ticked that it took longer to get there.
I hardly ever even look at my feedback anymore. To be able to go through business and not hit a nut, someone who had a bad day, or people who have extremely high expectations is impossible.
Anytime I see a seller with 100% feedback that has over 3,000 or so, I figure they keep paying the $20 to get the negs removed.
Or they have been darn lucky and not met up with the customers that are impossible to keep happy.
Too much stress is put on feedback.
Jill
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I agree, too much emphasis is put on perfect feedback. Once I got my first negative, I was sort of able to relax a little - sort of like when you get the first ding on the new car, or stain on the carpet. In person to person transactions, it's pretty normal for someone to have a bad day in six years of sales, and leave a negative or neutral that isn't deserved. If people look at feedback at all, they will see the overall picture - not just the last bad mark on a near perfect record.
I have over 9000, with a 98.8% (and a lot of the negs were ignorant half.com customers), and I do everything I can to take good care of my customers. But I'm a human, and not perfect, and neither are they.
(And needless to say, neither is ebay.)